


An Offer You Shouldn't Refuse

by ladyknightanka



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Minor Injuries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-31
Updated: 2012-12-31
Packaged: 2017-11-23 03:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/617623
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladyknightanka/pseuds/ladyknightanka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve is hurt that Tony doesn't trust him to help out with his inventions. Tony gets hurt a whole different way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Offer You Shouldn't Refuse

**Author's Note:**

> Uploading a bunch of older fics to AO3. This is one of them. The reason Spider-Man is mentioned is because...well, I love Spider-Man. But only Pepper, Steve and Tony are actually present. Enjoy!

-

An Offer You Shouldn't Refuse

-

  
It's a nice night. All of the other Avengers are out, so Steve and Tony can have an evening in without looking over their shoulders. At first, Steve thinks this means Tony will want to relocate to his bedroom straight away, wine in hand, but instead, Steve is pleasantly surprised when Tony suggests they make it a movie night.  
  
“I can't, in good conscience, associate with anyone who hasn't seen _The Godfather_ ,” Tony says with a grin.  
  
“Okay,” Steve agrees, but despite his most diligent efforts to pay attention, Tony forces him to spend much of the three hour movie kissing the aforementioned grin off his lips, which is a task Steve attends to with a soldier's determination.  
  
They're perhaps half an hour away from the ending when Pepper's voice interrupts to say, “Tony, Rhodey's on the phone.” Tony levels a deadpan look at her and she stares back, an eyebrow quirked. “He doesn't sound happy,” she adds.  
  
Tony furrows his own forehead, then exclaims, “ _Oh_. Rhodey. Of course. Yeah. That thing he needed. Uh, tell him we're on it, Pepper?”  
  
“We?” Pepper asks, both eyebrows arched now.  
  
Tony widens his eyes slightly and chews on his bottom lip. “I promised it for tomorrow,” he all but whines. “You really won't help me?”  
  
“All right, _fine_ ,” Pepper says. She sighs, but dutifully tells Rhodey, “I'll make sure he gets it done.”  
  
Tony clasps his hands together, chipper as a circus seal, and says, “You're a goddess, Pep. I'll meet you in the lab, all right?”  
  
“Sure, Tony,” Pepper replies, and though she rolls her eyes, she's smiling.  
  
Steve looks between the two of them, then hesitantly inquires, “Anything I can do, Tony?”  
  
Something clenches in his chest when Tony merely blinks at him, as if he forgot Steve's presence for a minute. “Help down in the lab?” Tony asks, chuckling, which doesn't dissipate Steve's discomfort, even after he pecks Steve on the lips. “No thanks, gorgeous. You just watch the trilogy. I'll be back as soon as I can.”  
  
Steve watches Tony and Pepper flounce off. He returns his gaze to the huge, black and white TV screen, but can't continue to focus. In the end, he only pops in the next DVD because there's an itch in the back of his brain, the soldier in him, the soldier he always wanted to be, that makes him obey Tony's pseudo-command. He sprawls back on Tony's couch.  
  
The second movie ends and the third runs five minutes in. Even before the manor quakes and Pepper screams, baby-fine hairs on the nape of Steve's neck rise, what Spider-Man, who sometimes teamed up with them, would call his 'spidey sense'. Steve's in the basement in three seconds flat, where he finds one of Tony's legs beneath a silver beam, blood on its exposed knee, and Pepper kneeling beside him.  
  
“H-his newest addition to the War Machine armor caused an explosion. The beam fell.” Pepper's eyes are wide, her usually coiffed hair out of place, and her skin is as drained as Tony's.  
  
“'M fine,” the billionaire intones breathlessly.  
  
Steve falls on the ground near him and Pepper edges away to give them space. “You are _not_ fine, Tony,” she says, to which Steve nods, lips pressed together into a grim line. Nodding is all he can do, to avoid yelling – nodding and pulling the shrapnel off.  
  
“I've got him,” Steve tells Pepper, once the barrier between him and Tony is gone and she moves to help lift him. Steve gathers Tony in his arms, then hurries up the stairs to Tony's bedroom, leaving Pepper to follow at a slower pace. He arranges Tony carefully atop his who-knows-how-many thread-count sheets. Pepper comes in behind him with a first aid kit. They set to work and Tony is comfortably sleeping soon enough.  
  
Steve falls asleep in the chair at Tony's bedside and wakes to find deep brown eyes riveted to him. “Hey, gorgeous,” Tony says, pained smile in place.  
  
“Tony, how are you feeling?” Steve says. It feels natural to take Tony's hand in his own and Tony doesn't extricate it, either.  
  
All he says is, “Like I need some more painkillers, but I'm okay. The milligram count needn't be _too_ high.” Steve smiles and squeezes Tony's fingers. Tony shuts his eyes against the light, but reciprocates the motion. A few minutes pass. Steve almost assumes Tony has fallen back asleep, except he moves to speak again. “You were upset.”  
  
“Hm?” Steve gapes at him, then glares. “About you getting hurt? _Of course_ I was upset, Tony, goddammit.”  
  
Tony flinches like listening to Steve physically hurts, but before Steve can feel bad about it, he chuckles. “No, I meant, you were hurt when I ditched you. I'm, uh, sorry about that. If it helps, work isn't more fun than being with you, but I figured you'd only be bored if I let you tag along.”  
  
“Oh,” Steve says, the blue of his eyes muting to an almost-gray. His lips twitch at Tony's thoughtfulness, but still tuck down at the corners. “If I was there in the lab with you, though, maybe you wouldn't be hurt right now.” He bunches his free hand into Tony's sheets.  
  
“Hey,” Tony murmurs, till Steve meets his gaze again. “That was as much my fault as yours. More, actually. How 'bout this – when I work in the lab next time, you can be my muscle man? Sound good?” Steve nods affirmative and Tony sighs in content. “Good. Now, help me scoot over so you can get in.”  
  
“Tony...” Steve says, exasperated, yet he can't help thinking that Tony's prognosis isn't so bad that he can't do with some company.  
  
In a few hours, Pepper finds them curled together and forbids the other Avengers from interrupting.

  
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The End

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End file.
